The background researches below are a key part to my understanding of the course objectives. The first research that I found on Guy de Maupassant helped my understanding of objective number one by finding how the writer utilized his words to depict a story that would go beyond the reading and spark imagination. For the second research, my knowledge of objective number five assisted me to push further than the surface of a person or people by relating to their culture and showing compassion to them.
Guy de Maupassant was a famous French author from the late 19th century. He wrote fictional short stories, and was considered to be one of the 'fathers' of short stories in the modern era. His main style of writing often hinted towards civilians and the effect war has on them. Below is a link to read up on his life, as well as a photograph of Maupassant. The short story that I read from him was fairly entertaining, and I encourage you to look his work up!
http://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Guy_de_Maupassant.html
http://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Guy_de_Maupassant.html
For beyond borders 4, we chose 'everyone has a story' as our chapter to teach upon. This photograph was taken mid-2010 while I was in Afghanistan. It represents a good story, one were an Afghan boy gave me his hat to wear while we were on patrol. The photograph lends itself fairly well to the seventh step: 'how little we know' of the 12 Steps to a Compassionate Life. We know fairly little about those children living in Afghanistan, and from stories we may hear of negativity towards coalition forces. I know differently, however, as this child gave me his hat to keep (although I could not bring myself to take it), while having little to nothing in terms of property. An experience like this can change the outlook of negativity to a gleam of prosperity. The other picture is the father of the child that gave me the hat to wear. I thought it would be a nice picture to share, so I am! I believe that these picture's stories would have a great use for course objective number four, as the different ethnicity and story lines of each would lend themselves nicely to this particular one.